Marks and Spencer pulls advertising from Google over extremist content

21/03/2017

LONDON-An executive for Alphabet Inc.'s Google apologized Monday for commercials that appeared before extremist videos on its YouTube site and said it would simplify tools that allow advertisers to control where their ads appear.

Matt Brittin, who runs Google in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, said: "I would like to apologise to our partners who might have been affected by their ads appearing on controversial content".

A Google spokesman said last week: "We have strict guidelines that define where Google ads should appear, and in the vast majority of cases, our policies work as intended, protecting users and advertisers from harmful or inappropriate content".

Google's momentum as a must-buy stock may be slowing down, as companies begin to pull away from the advertising giant in the United Kingdom over concerns regarding where their ads are appearing.

The British arm of French advertising agency Havas suspended such advertising last week.

M&S joins the Google boycott. Barclays could also be about to follow them out the door.

Marks&Spencer are amongst the firms pulling their adverts, saying: "In order to ensure brand safety, we are pausing activity across Google platforms whilst the matter is worked through". "We are taking immediate action to remedy this issue and will be working yet more closely with Google to prevent this from happening in the future".

When pressed to explain what concrete steps the company would take to flag and remove questionable content, However, Brittin remained evasive.

YouTube is promising more control over where ads appear, after brands were spooked by running near offensive videos.

"We have a review under way on how we can improve". "To the extent it doesn't change we'll hold them accountable by the best way we know how and we'll hold back funds".

"We have always said Google, Facebook and others are media companies and have the same responsibilities as any other media company", Mr Sorrell said, per The Independent.

Rob Norman, GroupM's chief digital officer, told Sky News that Google's response "has so far not been sufficient" and he said it needed to make "a public announcement apologising to consumers for the presence of the content, and telling those consumer that they should never imply that an advertiser endorses that content".

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